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F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition pros and cons

Vendor: F5
4.5 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition enhances user experience, performance, and security, effectively benefiting organizations.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition simplifies management of network setups like load balancing for application traffic, providing cost savings and flexibility across hybrid clouds.
Its advanced web application firewall protection and SSL offloading improve application security and compliance posture.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition demonstrates significant cost reductions and improved resource utilization, saving organizations substantial amounts and reducing team sizes.
Organizations experience fewer service interruptions and improved uptime with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, making it a stable and reliable choice for load balancing.

CONS

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could improve logging modules and enhance support for microservices in Docker and Kubernetes environments.
It faces complaints regarding costly licensing, and there's a lack of 10 gig licensing options, which impacts pricing perspectives.
On-the-go upgrades and load management improvements are necessary, especially when multiple modules are handled.
Failover capability fails sometimes, and customer support occasionally has a wait time of two to three days.
New engineers require more training to fully leverage advanced traffic policies and features efficiently.
 

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Pros review quotes

reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 31, 2026
Compared to our physical environment, with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition we have saved approximately one hundred thousand dollars, reduced our team from five people to two, and achieved an overall cost reduction of twenty-five to thirty percent, with some areas reaching forty percent.
reviewer2802939 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 15, 2026
Before F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we were dealing with recurring service interruptions, sometimes multiple incidents in a month or a week, and after moving to F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, those dropped to very rare occurrences, with outages happening once in a blue moon.
reviewer2800377 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Jan 30, 2026
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has positively impacted my organization at the State of Oregon by streamlining operations, delivering significant time savings, reducing errors, and giving me a clearer overview of which features each customer has, which minimizes mistakes during operations and enhances our overall efficiency.
Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Srinivasan Arumugam - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
Mar 5, 2026
Since we implemented F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have experienced better application performance and lower costs compared to hardware appliances, along with flexibility in deploying F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition across multiple hybrid clouds.
reviewer1469877 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Consutant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Feb 1, 2026
Overall, the application stability and performance are all at par.
Hammad Halim - PeerSpot reviewer
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
Jan 16, 2026
I would highly recommend F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition to everyone because we have had a phenomenal experience using this device.
reviewer2800341 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 30, 2026
Organizations, if you are using or if you want an enterprise-level solution, you definitely have to go with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition.
Prity Lata - PeerSpot reviewer
Analyst at Accenture
Mar 3, 2026
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has positively impacted my organization by simplifying management, as we previously had to manage hardware boxes, and now with the virtual edition it is easy to use and reliable, and we have been working with it for the last three to four years without a single issue reported, making it a very reliable and stable product.
JagdishLal - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Specialist at HCLSoftware
Feb 7, 2026
I would advise others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition that it is the best instrument for load balancing.
AM
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
Jan 19, 2026
I truly appreciate the power of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition compared to any other vendor we have used, and we have seen more use cases coming in, proving it to be better than other products.
 

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Cons review quotes

reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 31, 2026
The failover capability is also not as good as it should be. We have tested the failover functionality, and sometimes we have observed that failover fails.
reviewer2802939 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 15, 2026
However, for new engineers, it can take some time to fully understand and use all the features efficiently, especially around advanced traffic policies and customization.
reviewer2800377 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Jan 30, 2026
In terms of improvements for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, I encountered issues with load management when multiple modules such as AFM, APM, LTM, and GTM are handled together.
Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Srinivasan Arumugam - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
Mar 5, 2026
The improvement points I can suggest are that F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition tends to be highly resource-intensive, as we often encounter issues with high CPU, RAM, and storage utilization, particularly with ASM and LTM modules.
reviewer1469877 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Consutant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Feb 1, 2026
I feel that F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved because overall, it is a pretty good product, but the licensing is rather costly.
Hammad Halim - PeerSpot reviewer
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
Jan 16, 2026
I believe F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved in the area of pricing. It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us.
reviewer2800341 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 30, 2026
As per my understanding, there is a need to improve support. Sometimes it is very critical to get support for that.
Prity Lata - PeerSpot reviewer
Analyst at Accenture
Mar 3, 2026
My experience with pricing and setup costs for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition was mixed, as they do not have an option for 10 gig licensing, which was costly for us.
JagdishLal - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Specialist at HCLSoftware
Feb 7, 2026
The customer support for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has been satisfactory. While getting a trial license, I communicated with the customer support team, and they responded in a timely manner. However, there was a wait time of two or three days, which could be improved.
AM
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
Jan 19, 2026
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved by enhancing the GUI, as I think it should be more user-friendly.